A/N Oh hey, I actually got around to writing something, rather surprisingly. Well this is my first foray into Pokemon fanfiction and my first actual fanfic in like 2 years, so this is bound to be fun. Anyways, obligatory I don't own Pokemon. Nintendo and Game Freak do own Pokemon though, yada yada. Constructive Criticism would be appreciated. Anyways I hope you enjoy.

The fuming remains of Silva forest burned throughout the night. Within just a single night, hundreds of pokemon had lost their lives to the inferno which had engulfed the forest. The forest smelt of only death as the corpses of many woodland pokemon laid throughout the flaming woods. Alongside them, the bark from the trees had also fallen and burned as well. But as per usual with this type of situation, it wouldn't be long until the humans would arrive to stop the fire. And then life would go on, as the forest and pokemon who lived within it would return and live their lives as usual...

Chapter 1:

The Flames that Withered

With just a single hop, the Zorua jumped over the burning bark. He landed gracefully without a shake or trip, showing no signs of fear or worry within his movement. Looking side to side, the gray fox stood still. While the fire and ashes filled most of the surrounding area, he could spot at least a few things. For example, he could see many dead pokemon scattered on the ground. From what he could tell, there were a few Pineco or Patrat in the mix. But the vast majority of the corpses were far too disfigured, making them unrecognizable. Then in an oak tree, perhaps a yard away from him, was a nest. From what he could see, the nest looked empty which meant one of either two things: the pokemon that had lived there had either fled or had suffocated. The Zorua winced and shook his head, as if to get those thoughts out, and then sighed to himself.

"Still no good... Where is he?" He put his nose towards the ground and began to sniff. But within just a few seconds, his face began to turn a pale white, before he started to cough. "T-th-this fire..." he spluttered.

Then that's when he heard it...

The sound of "slish", a sound that showed something, no, somebody was still alive. As his ears perked up, the Zorua stared at the spot from where the sound came from. It seemed to have come from behind a tree towards just the right of him. With a single hop, he began to walk forward towards the burning structure. There, he saw it right out of the corner of his eye...

A mass of leaves had slid out from behind the tree. The Zorua, confused at it's movement, stared at it. Taking a closer look, he saw that the leaves had burns all over them. He also saw that there were two yellow objects that were protruding from the front of it. He was about to step forward and sniff it, when two of the leaves had separated from the others, revealing that this thing, whatever it was, was still alive.

The Zorua taken back, tilted his head, attempting to examine what this strange specimen was. It was only maybe a second, before he realized it was just an injured Leavanny. The Leavanny raised her head, and looked at the Zorua. She was shaking, gasping, and had burns all over her body... yet, her expression was not one of pain or agony... if anything, it looked as if she had just found her spot of hope, at least to the Zorua. The Zorua sighed and walked towards the Leavanny.

"H-help…. m-me." The Zorua stopped right in front of her and leaned his head towards the grass type, once again examining her. As he looked though, his eyes began to droop, and his mouth fell into a "meh" expression. He then grunted to himself and turned around, walking away from her. " W-Wait..." She tried to crawl towards the Zorua, but he was already too far away. Then... The Leavanny felt herself fall to the ground... She then closed her eyes as her "hope" disappeared, and she began to lose consciousness...

But then...

He stopped dead in his tracks, his teeth forming a grin.

"Oh, what the hell?"

He lunged at her and with a single bite, the Zorua tore a leg off from her body before retreating.

Screaming, the Leavanny felt her body rise up in pain before falling back to the ground. She then felt herself convulsing, as blood splurted out of her stump. The Leavanny whimpered as she tried to look at the Zorua munching on her torn off leg, her mind trying to rationalize his action. Perhaps, he had no choice, he was starving and needed food. Or, maybe he had gone delusional from the flames, and didn't know he was actually hurting her. But then, she got a look of his face... There was no pain, there was no excitement, there was nothing to show he was starving...

In fact, he looked almost bored...

The Leavanny, still convulsing, managed to pick herself up and began to crawl towards him, grunting along the way. But the Zorua just continued to munch on her leg, it was perhaps a minute before he noticed her crawling.

"Oh... you're still alive?" The Zorua smirked and raised himself up as he walked towards her. " You're a fighter aren't you? Unlike the rest of these poor sacks of trash, you just won't go down without a fight, won't ya little girl?"

The Leavanny winced, and stopped to think. "Wha- what kin-da monst-er a-are you?"

The Zorua snickered, as he went back to eat the remaining remnants of her leg. The Leavanny could do nothing but watch as he ate...

...

The Zorua soon enough finished his meal and got up, walking towards her again, as she looked at him with a look of detest in her eyes. He snickered, as if he thought the look was cute and then pounced and bit her antenna off.

Splutter

Blood began to spill out of the hole where the antenna used to be attached, but the Leavanny though struggling, just glared at the Zorua. The Zorua, chewing on the antenna, chuckled as he looked at her expression. "What's your name?" he asked, as he exaggeratedly moaned "mmm" as he chewed on the antenna. But the only reaction he got out of her, was silence. The Zorua smirked, put the antenna down, and stood over her.

Splutter

The Zorua watched, as the now antenna-less Leavanny gave out a scream before she collapsed. He then spat out the other antenna, while she cried, trying to get herself back up. " You're cute." remarked the Zorua as she finally raised herself up. " So, what's your name again?"

" Y- Yucca." The Zorua's eyes widened, and his smirk grew, as he finally got a response out of her. With a quiver and a shudder, Yucca raised her head again, shaking in both fear as well as determination.

" That's a nice name, Mine's Elpis, I believe that's the name of some sorta god of hope in old human culture or something." Elpis chuckled to himself as he said that, he then looked at her with a lick of the lips. " Why aren't you laughing? Scared? "

"I- I'm not sc-scare-scared of you!" Yucca shook as she kept up her glare.

" You're not scared of me? You got some guts kid, that's for sure. Fine by me, you little ones are always more fun to break." Elpis then pounced again, biting onto her arm and then tearing it off. But instead of a scream, she closed her mouth, stood still, gasped, and then once again glared at him.

Spitting out her arm, Elpis growled before glaring back at Yucca. Her face was now starting to become white, but her glare remained. " A-are you serious kid? I just tore your arm off and yet, you still wanna look at me like that!" Elpis then hunched his back as if he was about to pounce, as he bared his fangs. Yucca though just gave out a strange sound.

" Y- You're a k-kid too aren-n't you?"

Elpis flushed...

" Y-Yeah so, I still have you beaten down on the ground, don't I?" Yucca then made that strange noise again. Elpis paused, as he realized what that noise was meant to be...

It was a chuckle...

Elpis, then felt himself fill with rage." How... How dare you!" He pounced and then bit into the Leavanny's forehead, ripping her skin off like a leaf...

Holding her glare, she coughed blood...

Losing himself, Elpis then bit into her forehead again and again and again. By the time he realized that he was tearing off at the same spot, it had already been a few minutes. Yucca had long been dead by now, but not once did she give up her glare.

Elpis panted as he stared at her corpse. " It's just one person, Elpis. She had no chance." Elpis recomposed himself, and lied down. Baring his fangs, he dug into what used to be a Leavanny.

Screams of agony popped in and out throughout the night, as the fire spread through the forest. Not many pokemon had been able to escape, as many that had resided there had a major weakness to fire. One pokemon though had found himself a safe spot for the time being. Within a hole in an oak tree laid a Riolu. The Riolu was at the moment slouching, as he laid within a nest. His body was covered head to toe with grime and scratches, and his eyes gave the impression of someone who desperately needed a rest. But for now, he seemed to be safe from the flames.

The Riolu was currently staring at the bark around him, as he heard the sounds of someone eating outside. He knew full well who it was...

" There goes another one," The Riolu said as he laid back, panting heavily. " I wonder if I'll meet the same fate soon…" The Riolu then felt his eyes beginning to close, as he started to slide into the field of unconsciousness.

"No, no snap out of it, this is what he wants!" The Riolu slowly forced his eyes open, and began to sink lower into the nest. As he laid back, he tried to quiet down his panting, as he recognized the sounds of chewing were getting louder. He also began to try to keep his eyes from closing, as he knew the suffocating toxins around him would kill him otherwise. But his efforts began to feel futile as his eyelids closed again.

" You deserved this."

The Riolu flung his eyes open. With sweat running down his neck, he started gasping again and again as his eyes rapidly looked back and forth around the nest. Yet there was nobody in sight, not even from outside the tree besides the Zorua who continued to feast on his meal.

"I... must've dozed off." Thought the Riolu as he began rubbing his eyes. That voice.. it was a voice of a friend, a friend who shouldn't have been here right now. The Riolu, deciding that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, began to try to get his thoughts off it. But those thoughts were simply replaced with those of Elpis...

Elpis... he was a monster. Ever since he showed up, the Riolu's life had gone to hell. Seeing Elpis eat that Leavanny wasn't anything new. In fact, that Leavanny was only the third pokemon he saw that had gotten randomly killed like that since Elpis arrived. Was it a fear tactic? Was Elpis trying to create fear in him by doing these things... Or was he doing this out of pleasure, finding the action of killing satisfying? He wouldn't be surprised if either or both were true. Whichever it was, the most important thing right now was staying hidden and staying alive.

The Riolu began to feel his eyes closing again, but this time he was able to catch himself, forcing his eyes open as he waited for the Zorua to finish his meal, but then...

" There's no point in hiding from your mistakes, they'll catch up to you no matter what you do."

This time he was sure of it... it was her voice. The Riolu sat up and looked around. There was no way anyone else could fit in this hole, after all it could barely fit him. He also knew that Elpis wouldn't be capable of creating such an illusion. Perhaps if he was a Zoroark, he could, but he was just a Zorua. If he was doing some simple illusion within his capabilities, then the voice would not sound as close as it was right now.

" Dustin, what's the point of hiding? You, yourself know that this is simply your toll for the mistakes that you've caused!"

There in front of him, as if she came out of thin air was a Vulpix. Dustin fell back in shock, he knew there was no way his... former friend could be here. But yet, here she was... Dustin stood up as best as he could, breathing rapidly as he stared at her in complete and utter fear. Multiple things now began to run through his mind; where did she come from, what did she want, and why did she want to see him again? She was not there a moment ago, that was for sure. But nevertheless, she was here, and saying that he deserved this entire mess.

Dustin sighed, trying to calm himself down. He took a step forward, looking right at her. " Nina... I.. I..." Dustin trailed off as he looked at her. " Uh.. listen, I k-know that you think that everything..." He felt the words begin to disappear from his throat as Nina glared at him. For a second, he wanted to stop and just go on his knees, and beg Nina to believe him. But with a gulp, he tried to continue on.

" Look, I know you think that everything that's h-happened in the last week has been my fault... but you need to listen to me right now." Dustin extended his arm in a tired manner and showed his palm to her. " Elpis... he's been tricking you... he's been tricking all of us. He's not from around here, he has some... he has some sort of agenda to get rid of us one by one." Dustin looked at Nina, but her face remained the same, a stern expression.

Dustin tried to continue to speak directly to her, but he could now feel the tears beginning to well up in his eyes. It was becoming harder and harder to retain composure. " Nina please, you- n- ... You need to trust me, Elpis, if you go with him, he'll kill you.. or do something even worse! I don't want what happened with Alex to happen to you!" But it was to no avail, Dustin just watched as Nina sat, her eyes peering into him.

Dustin then fell to his knees, staring at the nest. He couldn't look up at her anymore, all he could look at were his own tears as they fell. Dustin knew there was no way he could convince her, but he knew he had no other option but to try. He raised himself up and once again tried to compose himself.

That's when... he noticed something wasn't right.

A dark aura had suddenly appeared, surrounding Nina. Along with it, tiny black particles were forming from the aura, and falling off from her. Dustin looked at her in confusion, trying to understand what was happening. He had never seen anything like this before. " Nina... are you-" Before he could finish the sentence, Nina opened her mouth, releasing hundreds of black particles, all coming forward towards Dustin. Dustin flinched, placing his arms in front of him, as he tried to endure the sudden onslaught. But it never came...

The black particles had diverted, and retreated into the holes in the bark instead. Dustin then looked at Nina, but to his surprise, she was no longer there. Placing his palm on his head, he fell back onto the nest. He began hyperventilating as he repeatedly looked around the space, trying to comprehend what just happened. But there was nothing, no black particles, no Nina, and no voices, just a few seconds of an uncomfortable feeling passing by his face.

The sound of bark exploding, soon got Dustin out of this state as he got up and felt pieces of wood fall on him. Something had crashed into the ceiling, something that had nearly hit him. Dustin looked at the spot where Nina used to be, as if to see if she was ok, but of course she wasn't there. He looked around once more before he sighed, closing his eyes. His ears then rose up, and a faint blue energy began to surround him. Focusing his aura, he looked outside to check on Elpis, only to see he was no longer there. Dustin then felt shivers go through him as his worst fear was soon confirmed...

Elpis was now in front of the tree Dustin was in, his mouth open and brewing with a growing energy. Dustin now knew there was no way he was going to able to escape without confronting him. As he thought on what to do, Dustin felt that energy disappear from Elpis's jaw.

Dustin opened his eyes, retracting himself from his focus, only for it to be too late as a dark ball of energy suddenly flew into the hole. It then hit him directly in the chest, flinging him onto the wall of bark behind him. As he slid into the nest, a feeling of violation surged through Dustin. It felt like the attack that had hit him had attacked his soul instead of his body. It was the natural effect of a ghost type attack, something that showed Elpis knew for a fact that Dustin was there. Dustin opened his eyes, recovering, only to see another shadow ball had entered. This time around though, he threw himself to the floor, dodging the ball as it hit the bark instead. As he felt the wood fly by him, he got up and ran towards the entrance. He then jumped onto the wall, using it to throw himself outside of the tree.

Elpis sighed, he had just finished eating his meal. He was currently not feeling so well though. After all, he had gotten sidetracked as that Leavanny had gotten him distracted. He questioned the fact why he didn't just kill her immediately or even just ignore her, but he knew full well the reason why he didn't. It was the rush of intimidating and killing someone who tried to stand up to him. And he had actually made a pretty good guess, she turned out to be quite a defiant little bug, and thus satisfied his desires, at least at first. Before he could think on any longer, he realized that the Riolu he was chasing could of gotten away by now.

He got up and looked around. Once again, he saw only corpses. As he prepared to leave, he heard a noise. It sounded like footsteps...And it was coming from a nearby tree, the same one he guessed that had no one alive in it. Realizing that it was possible the noise had been going on for a while, and he had just simply not noticed, Elpis quickly rushed off.

As he marched through the smoke in order to get closer and hear better, he heard a voice. It was Dustin's... The voice sent a rush of anger into Elpis. If he hadn't stopped to check his surroundings, he would of left the area and miss his target. Cursing himself quietly, Elpis began to run towards the tree before he stopped himself. Instead, he decided to slowly walk towards the front of it, trying not to gain Dustin's attention.

That was when he began charging a shadow ball, knowing that it was the best option for this type of situation. After all, it was one of his few attacks that could actually do significant damage to Dustin. After he fired the shadow ball, he heard it impact the wood, but he didn't hear any noise from Dustin. Feeling that it probably missed, he fired another shadow ball. This time, he heard Dustin's groans, so he fired another; he was about to fire once more, when he heard Dustin's footsteps getting closer. This time he waited for him to finally leave his secluded spot.

"There he is!" Dustin had jumped out of the tree, and right into Elpis's grasp. With a smirk, Elpis fired the last shadow ball directly at Dustin, hitting him spot on. He fell out of the air, and smacked onto the hot ground with a large thud. Elpis had done it, he had Dustin right where he wanted. With a buck of the legs, he began to sprint, one of his stumps beginning to glow with a white hue, ready for the attack.

As he ran towards Dustin though, a yellow light flashed onto the scene, appearing in front of Elpis. It had a intense glow and it was sending any nearby stones flying away. Elpis tried to stop his dash, but then he felt his body being impacted by the many stones and pebbles flying at him at high speed. He fell to the ground, wheezing while the light faded away. If it wasn't for his natural defenses being so high right now, his internal organs would of probably ruptured from the assault.

Meanwhile, Dustin landed on the ground, quite a bit away from Elpis. He ran through the smoke, thinking about what had just happened. It was a bit unconventional, but his plan worked perfectly. First he allowed himself to be hit by the shadow ball, with that he was able to fall far enough from Elpis to start his plan. Having chosen the tree cause of the rocks nearby, he was able to jump quickly, and use force palm on a rock in order to give himself a boost in distance from Elpis. Not only had it flung him two trees away, but it also was able to momentarily disable the Zorua.

But the smoke was harsh, far more harsh than Dustin expected. He couldn't move through it without coughing. It also didn't help that the shadow ball attacks had given a small limp to his movement. Soon enough, he heard footsteps behind him and a yell.

"You bastard! I won't let you get away with a trick like that!" Dustin didn't dare to look back, and just continued running, knowing that Elpis would be near him any second. Meanwhile, Elpis having recovered, raced towards him with a white streak appearing from behind. He was nearly there, and this time he was determined to not allow Dustin to pull any more tricks on him. He paid close attention to the blue pokemon, but it seemed Dustin was just intent on running instead of doing anything else, a fatal mistake within Elpis's eyes. Then he saw it, Dustin had placed his palm on another rock.

" Not this time." Elpis jumped, and with the boost of his agility, he was able to get a glowing white hue on his leg, just in time to scratch Dustin, and send him flying again to the ground with a thud.

Dustin groaned, his body felt battered, and he knew he couldn't take much more. He laid still with heavy breaths as his eyes began to well up with tears. " I guess I'll be joining you guys soon, huh? Alex, Nina, Emery... I'm sorry I couldn't save any of you, I hope you could forgive me one day." Tears ran down Dustin's cheeks as he finally accepted what fate had in store for him.

"Need a hand?"

Dustin's tears stopped... He raised his head, looking towards his left side, spying a dark blue paw.

"Emily?"

There, offering her paw was a Glaceon. She had a yellow scarf around her neck, and was looking at Dustin with a smile, her eyes beaming. Dustin grabbed her paw and raised himself up, staring at her. With tears falling, he embraced her, giving a hug, she did the same. The surroundings had mysteriously changed to a snowy cliffside, but to the two it did not matter, all that mattered was that they were together.

" It's been so long, I never thought I would see you again." wept the Glaceon.

"Me too...me too."

" Everything changed since you left, there's so many things that you've missed, so many adventures I've had without you. I don't even know where to begin."

" It doesn't matter right now, I'm just happy fate's brought us back together." Dustin and Emily both shed tears as they refused to let each other go. "Things won't be the same as last time." Dustin thought to himself.

" Dustin... What's happening?"

"Huh?" Dustin looked at his arm and saw a light blue liquid substance on his skin. He released himself from the hug, an action he would soon regret.

"Emily!"

Emily was melting... like a ice cream cone on a summer day. Her body was slowly dripping onto the ground as her fur and skin melded together into an unnatural looking mess.

"No! No! No!" Dustin panicked, breathing once again at a rapid pace. He grabbed the blue droplets that fell on the ground, and then tried to stick them back on Emily, but the droplets simply faded away. He then hugged her, trying to hold her together, but once again he felt more droplets escaping his grasp. Dustin released himself from the hug and once again started crying. "Thi- this can't be happening." Then in one fell swoop, Emily's face, now pretty much an unrecognizable pile of light blue mush fell onto the snow.

" Dustin?"

Those were her last words as her melted face faded onto the snowy cliffside. Dustin fell to the ground on his knees, he was defeated. He sobbed and refused to move, even as his surroundings returned to the burning forest. Then, a surge of pain went through his body as he felt himself flip backwards onto the ground.

" What were you rambling about? Have you gone delirious or something?" Elpis looked at Dustin with confusion on his face as he walked towards him. He had charged into Dustin with pursuit, an attack that wouldn't usually do to much to him. But considering the state Dustin was in, it was able to heavily damage the Riolu. Elpis could now see the scratches on Dustin as well as the bruises probably attained from his shadow ball assault; Dustin was definitely near his limit, soon Elpis could spill his blood all he wanted, and he would finally be rid of him. Elpis walked forward and stood over Dustin, smirking at the sight of his target.

"Y-you..." Dustin laid still as he looked into the smoke above him. Elpis stared at him with bewilderment, as Dustin kept repeating "You" as he looked up at the smoke, refusing to take his eyes off it. It seemed, at least to Elpis, that the Riolu had been driven insane, which was no fun to him. After all, he wanted Dustin to fully experience the moment Elpis tore into him with his fangs.

"What a shame." said Elpis as he stood over the Riolu, his leg once again glowing with a white hue. "Today, Dustin, our little game ends." Elpis swung fast with his fury swipes... But not fast enough as Dustin moved his palm quickly in front of Elpis's face, releasing a blast of energy. Elpis was flung back from the blast, but was able to catch himself on his landing.

" You! I'm getting sick of these stupid little tricks of yours, Dustin!" Elpis growled in anger as he tried to open his eyes, which were stinging with pain. As Elpis's eyelids fluttered, Dustin jumped from spot to spot, and then slammed into Elpis at high speed. Elpis was flung backwards once again onto the ground.

"How- how dare you! How dare you make an illusion of Emily!" Dustin cried as he yelled at Elpis. He began charging a focus blast between his hands. But Elpis this time, was able to open his eyes just in time to jump and avoid the focus blast.

"What are you even talking about, you idiot!" Elpis yelled as he glared at Dustin. Dustin's hand turned white as he jumped at Elpis, who hopped out of the way as Dustin landed, his hand cracking the ground. Dustin looked behind him, his palm glowing but saw that Elpis was no longer there. Suddenly, he felt himself fall back onto the floor as Elpis kicked him in the face with his hind legs.

" I'm getting tired of that move." Said Elpis as he stomped his stump on the ground, before jumping on top of Dustin. Dustin groaned, as he felt the weight of the Zorua on him. Elpis, looking Dustin straight in the eyes, began to charge a shadow ball, his eyes looking intent for a kill. He fired it, only to be forced off Dustin as Dustin swung his fist, knocking Elpis back onto the ground.

The two groaned as they both laid in pain. Both Dustin and Elpis were now near their natural limit, soon it would truly be a battle to the death. The two struggled to get up as they both glared at each other, both determined to end this feud once and for all.

Elpis's right leg glowed as he got up. He looked at Dustin, who was still in the process of doing so. Seeing his chance, Elpis ran toward him and then jumped. He swung his leg as he approached Dustin, but before he could land the attack, Dustin threw his palm onto Elpis's face, hitting him with a reversal. Elpis was then hurled onto a nearby tree. As Elpis slid onto the ground, Dustin got up with a limp, walking towards him. There he saw it, Elpis's eyes had turned into spirals... the limit had been passed. Elpis then suddenly forced his eyes back from the spiral position, glaring at Dustin.

" Do it, end this feud right now, and stop your only chance from seeing your friends ever again!" Threatened Elpis, who sounded like he was going through a fierce pain just to talk. He looked like could barely move, and just one glance at his face could show the pain he was going through right now. Elpis had lost the battle, now the only thing he could try to do was save his own life.

Dustin ignored him though, and simply walked till he was in front of him. He stared down at the gray fox, his eyes slanted, and his face lacking any sort of expression. "How'd you do it?"

" How'd I'd do what?"

" The illusions. You shouldn't have been able to do those." said Dustin, his voice also oozing of pain.

" What illusions? I haven't done any since you came back."

" Don't you lie to me! I know that I definitely saw Nina and Emily back there. I saw those black things pouring from Nina's mouth, while she accused me of being a monster." Dustin could no longer contain his emotions, his tears flowed out of him, and his legs shook as he glared at Elpis. He took a step forward.. " I saw Emily hug me, and say she missed me, before she melted in front of my eyes, what the hell did you do back there?"

Elpis smirked as he watched Dustin glare at him, his tears still coming down. " Heh, those do sound like things I'd do, but considering I'm a Zorua and not a Zoroark, I can't exactly do that you dumbass." Dustin dropped his glare, and thought to himself, he wasn't sure if he should believe him. Elpis did have a fair point though, Zoruas were not capable of such complex illusions, plus it did seem he was telling the truth. But then again, nothing Elpis said could be trusted.

" Perhaps, that fire got to you, perhaps I'm not actually here right now, and you're still in that hole, waiting for death." Dustin flinched at Elpis's comment and then sighed, he closed his eyes once again, preparing to focus his aura in order to check if Elpis was truly there. Right as he did though, Elpis gave a loud grunt, and suddenly jumped at Dustin, his mouth open and his fangs preparing to bite. Dustin didn't have any time to brace himself, he was completely vulnerable to Elpis's attack. But...

That attack would never land on Dustin, instead Elpis disappeared from Dustin's aura. Dustin surprised, opened his eyes, and began looking around him. He then fell to the floor in disbelief, as he saw what now surrounded him.

The burning forest he was in just seconds ago had disappeared, instead Dustin was in a gray room. Dustin looked around the room, trying to understand what just happened. From what he could see from his position, the room contained many shelves and desks, which had machines on top of or next to them. A few of those machines he recognized, but the majority of them he didn't. There were also tables on almost every side of the room, as well as a big gray tomb like object in the middle. From what he could tell, he was in some sort of human laboratory or at least a room that looked like one.

" Is this... one of Elpis's illusions?" Wondered Dustin as he looked around. "Why would he make an illusion of this?" Dustin then shook his head, thinking to himself that even if Elpis could, he couldn't create such a complex illusion with the energy he had. Then again, Elpis had enough energy to muster one last attack on Dustin. Which then brought up the question on why would he make an illusion if he had Dustin right where he wanted.

Dustin's train of thought though was interrupted as he heard footsteps. He looked towards his left, there was a staircase which had been obscured to him by a desk. That was where the footsteps were coming from. Dustin, not wanting to be spotted, hid under a nearby desk. Then, spotting a black machine nearby, he crawled towards it, and then tried to hide within the space between the machine and a nearby table. But it was hard for him to fit in the space.

Two male humans descended from the stairs, they were wearing lab coats and carrying note pads. One of them was blonde, wearing glasses, and having slightly pushed back hair. He had a rather serious expression on his face, and gave off a feeling of no nonsense. The other had messy black hair, he was far more relaxed than the other guy but still had a serious expression. They were walking towards the tomb like object in the room, once they had reached there, they looked into the clear surface of it, observing whatever was in there. " Hmm, it looks the same, do you think it failed?" asked the raven haired scientist.

" Let's not conclude anything yet Frank, we still got another three hours to observe before the experiment's time is up." said the Blonde scientist as he started writing notes on his notepad. Dustin just watched as the two stood there, writing down their observations. Dustin was trapped, he had no idea where he was, plus for all he knew, there were probably more humans upstairs. Then, he saw Frank look away from his notepad, and instead stare directly at the machine Dustin was hiding behind.

"Hey Todd, did you let that Riolu in?" Asked a confused Frank to his compatriot. Dustin gulped as he saw that one of his legs had been slightly sticking out of the space, he had been spotted.

" No, no I didn't," Todd sighed to himself as he turned his head around looking at the machine. " I don't have the time to deal with this right now. Tell one of the scientists upstairs if anyone wants a free Riolu, let someone else catch it." said an agitated Todd. Dustin, now in panic, squeezed himself out of the space, and then tried to run out from under the desk. But as soon as he did that, he felt a sudden stabbing pain go through his legs, and he immediately fell forward. Dustin had forgotten about his injuries accumulated from his battle with Elpis.

" He looks injured, I'll take care of him for now." said Todd as he pulled out a pokeball from one of his lab coat pockets. " This should be an easy catch." Dustin gulped, realizing there was no way he could escape.

Boom

A large noise echoed through the room, emanating from outside the laboratory. Todd and Frank froze, their faces suddenly filling with fear as they both turned to each other. They both ran towards the stairs. But right as they reached it, an orange fireball burst through the wall, engulfing the two within a second.

Dustin could only watch in horror as the fireball raged towards him. But as it reached him, he suddenly was flipped on his back. On top of him was Elpis, who now looked healed from his injuries. Elpis was staring at him with a grin, withstanding the fireball that surrounded them.

" It's like your mother always said, Dustin, We should look towards a brighter future." The last thing Dustin saw was Elpis, as he moved in for a bite.

Dustin awoke with a yelp, as he gasped rapidly, trying to grasp for air. Looking around himself, he tried to see where he was, but all he saw were houses, and the backyards that surrounded them. Dustin then looked down at his own body, seeing he had no injuries on him. He sighed in relief, realizing that all of that was simply just a dream.

" What a nightmare." thought Dustin as he put his palm on his head, beginning to feel himself calm down. He felt as if Darkrai had decided to visit him tonight, but knew that was silly, knowing that there were no legendary pokemon in the region of Divisa. Dustin then noticed he was sleeping on a window sill, so he stood up and then moved to the edge of it, sitting down. He looked up at the sky with a blank expression on his face, feeling the cold air fly by him.

It was night time in the Divisa region, throughout the town of Redfern everyone slept, no matter if people or pokemon. It was a small and quiet town within the region, but it was known for a populace who had withstood many troubles in the past, as a result they called it " The town where the phoenix dwells." Dustin had always found the town to be quite interesting, and he was quite proud to call it home.

Dustin then looked back into the room that lied behind the window sill. He saw his trainer sleeping on his bed, laying under some green blankets. Along with him were Dustin's two fellow companion pokemon, who slept hanging from a ceiling fan, and lying on a makeshift bed respectively. He stared at them for a few seconds. It didn't look like it, but Dustin was glad to see them around. Dustin then turned back and continued to look at the night sky.

" That dream... it felt real." Dustin thought to himself. To him, it wasn't like a normal nightmare. While he did have nightmares in the past, this one felt different. Unlike the majority of his nightmares, which were quite random and had strange events, this one had a structure to it. It actually showed a event from his past rather accurately, besides the whole "illusions" thing and how the fight ended. In fact that ending was nowhere near what actually happened, but perhaps the most terrifying thing of the whole dream were the "illusions". Those were the things that were truly making him feel frightened right now. The interactions with Nina and Emily felt very real to him, and that experience in the lab was incredibly strange. He had never actually seen that lab before, sure he had seen a few while watching TV with his trainer, but that lab looked nothing like those.

Dustin though, just shook his head. It was silly to think it wasn't a dream, after all how else would you explain such a thing. For all he knew, he could of just forgotten that he saw the lab somewhere. And while the illusions did feel weirdly real, he was probably just over exaggerating it to himself. Dustin then stood up once again, although still staring at the sky. " It's time I leave my past behind." Dustin said to himself. He looked towards his trainer with a blank expression, tomorrow was their first day on a pokemon journey. Everyone besides him was excited about the journey, but Dustin had remained in a neutral mood about it. It was his usual mood actually so no one was surprised by it, but Dustin knew that the thing that was bothering him was his past.

" Well, there's no point dwelling over things that happened so long ago." Whispered Dustin, he clutched his palm into a fist the best he could and raised it into the air. " Starting today, I leave my past behind and look on towards the brighter future." Thought Dustin to himself. Dustin then closed the window and jumped off the sill, as he crawled on top of the blankets on his trainer's bed.

Dustin thought to himself that he would follow his mother's advice, there was no need for him to ruin the journey by being such a downer about it anyway. He then felt his eyelids beginning to close, calling for sleep to come and whisk him away. Yet, the thought of the strange dream continued to grow within Dustin's mind...

Pokemon:

The Journey Back Home

A/N: And that's a wrap, just to explain a few things. Natural Defense is just HP translated to a more realistic situation. In the universe I'm trying to convey, Pokemon still have their basic mechanics, even their spiral eyes. But once these spiral eyes occur, Pokemon bodies become basically as vulnerable as Human bodies, if not more, considering Pokemon are far stronger than Humans. This means, while they still have "HP" they can't really bleed, but once that "HP" is gone, they can. Fainting can still occur depending on how tired and how weak willed the Pokemon is, but a Pokemon still determined enough can keep themselves from fainting although at the cost of feeling a lot of physical pain.

Also a tiny small warning , don't expect gory scenes coming within the chapters ahead, if you're into that sort of stuff, good for you, but my intention here is to write a long, good, interesting and consistent storyline, not cool scenes just for the sake of being cool.

If this chapter was a bit confusing, which is what I was intending for, then stick around. The main storyline hasn't even begun...

Anyways, make sure to leave some constructive criticism and I hope you stick around for the second chapter... whenever it comes out.

Anyways that's all, hope you enjoyed.

From Skpfan